My Experience at a Hindu Ceremony

I grew up in a Christian household and attended Catholic school most of my life. I do not consider myself to be a religious person; although I was confirmed as a Catholic. I still find myself interested and in tune with different beliefs. I was always curious about other religions. I decided to attend a Hindu ceremony for this assignment because I find this particular religion to be very interesting. I attended a ceremony at the temple of ISKCON, which stands for “The International Society for Krishna Consciousness”. ISKCON is a worldwide movement started by “His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupād”, and it is dedicated to the values and practice of Bhakti Yoga (also known as the path of dedication and love) in this case to their Lord “Krishna”.

The temple is located in Potomac, Maryland and lies on twelve acres of beautiful forest land. When I first arrived I couldn’t help but notice all the wild life around me. The deer were walking in harmony with the people and they didn’t seem to be scared of our human presence. I noticed homes within the temple grounds, which I later found out served as boarding homes for their followers. The temple was very simple; it wasn’t ornate like I had pictured it.

The particular ceremony I attended is called “Sayana Arati” and it took place inside the temple. When I walked into the temple I was asked to take my shoes off and place them in the wooden cubbies before stepping foot into the main room. The ceremony was not very full, perhaps because it was especially cold that night. Some of the women were dressed in a traditional “Sari” while others wore a more modern themed “Sari”. Most of the people including myself were dressed in casual clothing, which helped me feel more at ease because of the way I was dressed.

Everyone was seated on the floor as the ceremony commenced with the blowing of a conch shell, then the curtains were drawn back and the statues of the deity’s appeared. One of the statues was of “Vishnu” and another of his avatar “Rama” and his wife “Sita”, the last one was of “Krishna”. The ceremony was led by a Hindu priest, wearing a white cloth robe and to my surprise was of Caucasian decent. He held an oil lamp in front of the statues of the deity’s, which he moved in a circular motion while chanting the “Hare Krishna Mantra”.